Papua New Guinea civil society groups have called on China to introduce regulation on illegal wood imports from the country. PNG is China’s single largest supplier of timber however, large quantities of these wood imports come from illegal operations. A letter signed by PNG groups including the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights and ACT NOW – states that governments of PNG and China have failed to act while the country’s globally significant forests are being destroyed. Source: Radio NZ
The letter highlights the devastating effect of illegal logging on PNG citizens.
Morris is a young parent in Ossima, East Sepik. He says the damage to the environment from local logging operations has impacted his access to traditional food and medicine sources for his family, spoiling his livelihood.
“Because I cannot hunt, I cannot fish, I cannot get bush medicine to help my family. Because now the logging operation damaged all the areas. The land has already been destroyed, and also the river, and sago palms that we usually use to eat, it is a staple food.”
The President of the Lavongai Local Government in New Ireland province, John Aini, says rampant logging has brought little but misery to communities who depend on forests.
“It takes so many years for a tree to grow to a size that can be harvested. It takes only three seconds for a rotten chainsaw to cut it down. Not for our benefit, but the benefit of foreigners. All we are witnessing is misery and destruction.”
For decades studies of PNG’s forestry sector have identified the unsustainable rate of illegal logging without the problem being confronted systematically. A policy advisor with the NGO Global Witness, Lela Stanley, says civil society is looking to China to lead the change.
“The PNG government, although it’s made changes in response to those studies has pretty signally failed to protect its own forests and put the interests of its landowners who depend on those forests ahead of the interests of foreign corporations. And so civil society in PNG might be looking abroad. I think China’s the best bet for positive change in the industry.”
She says other major economies have created laws to ensure timber they source abroad is produced legally and sustainably, so China’s lack of regulations is now standing out.
“There is a set of policies related to making the Belt and Road initiative a greener one, but the policies don’t engage whether raw materials that are sourced abroad – like timber for instance which is so important in the PNG context – whether these are sourced illegally or not. So that’s one of the things that we’ve been calling on China to change.”
China’s role in PNG is a growing one, but one that civil society says comes with growing responsibility.
